


To Remind You Until Then

by PetrichorIllusions



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, I dunno man the angst is a lot, I love Harridrew but Drew/Mental Health is my dream, Idk man Drew is just gay and sad but luckily there's Harrison to make all that better, Is it warranted? Unlikely, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 19:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetrichorIllusions/pseuds/PetrichorIllusions
Summary: "I don’t want to be that far away from you.”Drew gets some news. Harrison is there to make things better.





	To Remind You Until Then

**Author's Note:**

> Is the Drew I'm writing the epitome of mental health? No! So you'll have to forgive him for this strange reaction that was mostly just very, very therapeutic for me to write. Harrison is, as ever, a sweetheart. Enjoy!
> 
> The playlist of songs I wrote this to is here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6bbVR4J4t7KTXnoiS9dxdp if you want it!

The lights are off when Harrison gets home. It’s a worry - Drew is normally back long before him these days. He checks his phone as soon as he’s safely inside, hoping for an explanation. Nothing.

He thinks it through as he drops his bag and takes his shoes off, and he’s not really paying attention as he wanders through the house.

 

Except, he realises belatedly, there’s somebody sat on their sofa.

 

He just barely manages to stop himself staggering backwards, heart racing. His head is static panic, fumbling at his phone, mind racing —

But then he looks again, and it’s —

“Drew?”

He rushes to him, dropping to his knees in front of him.

Drew blinks at him, so lost in thought that he hadn’t realised he was here.

“Hi,” He says, barely a breath.

 

 “What’s wrong?” Harrison asks, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

Drew looks up, and seems to realise for the first time how dark it’s gotten around him.

“Oh.” He says. He shakes his head a little, trying to clear it. “I hadn’t— I didn’t know it was so late.”

“Did something happen?” It’s so difficult for him to keep his voice gentle, when all he wants is to check Drew all over for hurts, find and banish whatever is causing him this pain.

 

It takes a while for Drew to respond, as if the words are all bundling up inside him, never quite reaching the surface.

 

“I got offered a job.” He blurts out, eventually.

“What? Drew, that’s fantastic!”

“It’s in Manchester.”

“Okay, that’s an okay place to be, right?”

“It’s three thousand, two hundred and ninety-one miles away.”

“... oh.”

“It’s too far from you.”

Harrison can’t reply, can’t think of any words.

“But it’s exactly what I wanted.”

“Who’s it with?” Harrison manages to ask, and even he recognises the company Drew responds with.

“You have to take it.” He replies without hesitation. “That’s too good an offer to turn down, for anything.”

Drew worries his lip, eyes downcast.

“It’s so far away.” He says, helpless. “I don’t— I don’t want to be that far away from you.”

“Just for a little while,” Harrison tells him. “Until my research is done, or until you get bored, or until we find somewhere else to go, together.”

“And you’d- what, you’d just be? Okay with that?”

“It’s what you _want_ , Drew,” he reminds him, reaching up to cup his face. “It’s what you’ve wanted _forever_. I’m not going to stand between you and that.”

 

“But I want _you_ , too.”

Harrison stands and slides onto his lap, kissing his eye.

“You have me, love. You have me.”

Drew shudders beneath him, and Harrison says nothing, just holds him tight and wipes away the tears as they come.

 

\---

 

“We could always ask our fluff-harder to give us some phone sex tips.” He suggests, sly, after Drew has cried himself out, and gets rewarded with a huff of laughter.

 

\---

 

Harrison leads him into the kitchen, ostensibly for company whilst he cooks them dinner. They don’t talk about it, but after they’ve eaten Drew draws him close, and for just a little while, they sway together, dancing slowly to the music playing quietly on the radio.

 

\---

 

Drew awakes, later, to find the other side of the bed empty. He frowns into the pillow, remembering, and gets up, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders.

He finds Harrison in the kitchen, sat in an oversized jumper at the table, mug in hand. Drew sets his hands on his shoulders, and Harrison leans back into him, resting his head against his chest.

“Hi,” Harrison says, hushed.

Drew presses an absent-minded kiss to to top of his head.

“Okay?” He asks, and then feels stupid. It’s the middle of the night, Harrison’s clearly not.

“Yeah. No, I am.” says Harrison, when Drew makes an uncertain sound. “Just-” he pauses, thinking of the right word. “Processing.” He reaches up to tangle his fingers with Drew’s.

“Wanna come back and process where it’s warm?” Says Drew, aiming for light.

Harrison nods. “I just didn’t want to wake you.”

Drew smiles at him, soft, and pulls him up by the hand.

 

\---

 

“You’re stealing all my warmth.” Drew complains, cuddled up back in bed, but holds him tighter all the same.

“That was my plan all along.” Harrison tells him, nose pressed into Drew’s collarbone.

“Did you really think I’d mind?” He asks into the quiet.

 

“It felt like asking you to choose between your career and me.”

 

Harrison smiles, fond.

“I choose Drew, remember?” He presses his lips to Drew’s chest. “But I think I understand what you mean. I’m not going to drop everything for you, Drew, you know that. I won’t just blindly follow. But I will wait for you. For us. I think we can do this.”

 

“And you’d tell me, if not?”

 

“Drew. I promise you that we will communicate. We’re gonna communicate _so damn much._ Non-communicators aren’t going to know what hit them.”

“Why would we hit the non-communicators?” Drew teases, and Harrison knows he’s said the right thing. He lifts his head, dropping a kiss to the corner of Drew’s mouth. Drew’s hand comes up to cup his chin, drawing him in. It’s a soft kiss, fond and knowing.

But Drew draws back soon after, hugging Harrison back to his chest, and listening to the rate of his heart, Harrison knows there’s more to say. He knows Drew by now though, knows to wait, knows to let the words sort themselves out in his head.

“I love you,” He says eventually. “I love you.” It’s as if he’s trying to speak _into_ Harrison, lips to his hair. “I don’t want to— I’m scared.”

“What are you scared of, love?” Harrison asks, trying to keep his voice steady, as if hearing Drew this uncertain isn’t breaking his heart.

“That I’m - being greedy, wanting this and wanting you. That I’m tempting fate, or something.”

Harrison takes a moment to respond, considering.

“You’re allowed good things, Drew. You _deserve_ good things. Yeah?”

 

Drew lets out a shaky breath.

“Yeah.”

“One day,” Harrison tells him, “One day, you’re going to be able to say that without hesitating.”

Drew shifts in a barely-there shrug, but Harrison continues.

“And I’m going to be here to remind you until then.”

 

He pushes himself up so he can look Drew in the eye.

“I want that. I want to remind you of how much you’re worth. I want to be able to tell you that, wherever you are in the world, however close or far you are from me, even if I have to write it in a letter that goes via eighteen different postal services to get to you.”

“That’s very specific,” Drew whispers, but he doesn’t try to hide the tears welling in his eyes, and he lets Harrison kiss them away.

 

“You are worth eighteen postal services.” Harrison tells him, faux-solemn.

“I do mean it, though. I want to be a part of your life, in whatever capacity you’ll have me. If that means doing long-distance for a while, that’s okay. If it means changing things, that’s okay, too. We’ve got time to work it all out, okay?”

Drew nods, slowly. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, we’ve got time.”

“Good.” Says Harrison, kissing his temple.

“I think you should tell me more about all the things I deserve,” Drew says with half a smile, and Harrison tells him, listing and listing until his whispers slow, and they’re both asleep.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> RIP the line that didn't make it in - "Do you know how hot it’s gonna be to say my boyfriend is a foreign journalist?”  
> Thanks for reading! Come love these boys with me @courfaeriedust.tumblr.com


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